I’m currently a Research Fellow in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). I was previously a policy analyst at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget covering social protection policies, among other areas. I received my Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University, where I was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.
My research focuses on delivery of aid programming and public services, gender and inclusion in governance and decision-making, political economy dynamics around policy reforms, and governance in fragile settings. My work has been published in journals including Journal of Political Economy, Comparative Political Studies, Democratization, and Studies in Comparative International Development. It has also been featured in The Economist, NPR, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Forbes, among other media outlets.
I have conducted analysis, policy outreach, and/or fieldwork in a wide range of countries–including in Bolivia, India, Indonesia, Mali, Nepal, Nigeria, Peru, and Senegal–with various international agencies and local partners including ActionAid, the Institute for Integrated Development Studies, the Inter-American Development Bank, the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K), and the World Food Programme, among other governmental and local NGO partners. I have research on some of the following specific topics:
Delivery of aid programming and public services
- How information empowers citizens to demand better public services (Indonesia);
- When private outsourcing can improve public service delivery (Indonesia);
- How expertise and motivation of local bureaucrats can overcome resource constraints (Nepal);
- Improving equity and efficiency in delivery of agricultural input subsidies (Nepal);
- Federalism, decentralization, and agricultural governance (Nepal);
- Transparency and accountability in resource governance
Gender and inclusion in governance
- Women’s voice and agency in policy process (a conceptual framework);
- Testing whether and how women’s and men’s advocacy trainings can enhance women’s political participation and collective efficacy (ongoing, Nigeria);
- Effects of women’s political participation on poverty, livelihoods, and aspirations (ongoing, Nigeria);
- Testing role model and skills training interventions to amplify women’s claim-making in a workfare program (ongoing, India, NREGA);
- Understanding gender gaps in claim-making (India, NREGA);
- Enhancing gender integration in anticipatory action programming (ongoing, Nigeria, Nepal);
- Tools to measure women’s voice within agrifood governance;
- How climate-induced male out-migration shapes women’s role in community governance (Senegal)
Political economy & policy reform
- How low trust in government stymies efforts to reform fuel subsidies (Indonesia);
- Designing subsidy reforms when trust is low;
- Evolution of the role of state in economic development;
- The rise of global populism (includes original global dataset on populism, 1990-2021);
- Effects of populism on democracy & institutions;
Fragility & governance